Report: Conn.'s state of employment dismal for youths, elderly

Tim Loh

Updated 9:47 pm, Friday, August 30, 2013

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Today's teenagers and young adults are facing as tough a labor market as any generation of Connecticut youths in decades, a troubling trend for an aging state that will soon depend on these workers to fuel economic growth and support the growing ranks of retirees, according a report published Thursday by Connecticut Voices for Children. less

Today's teenagers and young adults are facing as tough a labor market as any generation of Connecticut youths in decades, a troubling trend for an aging state that will soon depend on these workers to fuel ... more

Photo: Sturti, Getty Images

Report: Conn.'s state of employment dismal for youths, elderly

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Today's teenagers and young adults are facing as tough a labor market as any generation of Connecticut youths in decades, a troubling trend for an aging state that will soon depend on these workers to fuel economic growth and support the growing ranks of retirees, according a report published Thursday by Connecticut Voices for Children.

Meanwhile, Connecticut has the second-worst long-term unemployment picture in the country -- overall, 48.9 percent of this state's unemployed workers have looked for jobs in vain for at least 27 weeks. That ratio is even greater among residents aged 55 or higher, which at 62 percent is the nation's highest. The long-term unemployment picture is, in part, a reflection of Connecticut's thinning manufacturing sector, which lost 1,073 workers in 2012, many of whom aren't readily trained for other high-paying jobs, the researchers said.

The report, called State of Working Connecticut 2013, makes for rather gloomy reading. It shows persistent discrepancies in the jobless rate along racial lines, too, with 15.7 percent of job-seeking Hispanics unable to land employment, and 13.4 percent of blacks, but just 7 percent of whites.

What's more, the state is primarily replacing higher paying jobs with lower paying jobs, reducing median wages between 2011 and 2012 from $20.71 an hour to $20.05 -- even as the state's overall unemployment rate ticked gradually down to about 8.1 percent over the course of the year.

For example, Connecticut replaced the 1,800 finance and insurance jobs that disappeared with about 4,400 new jobs in accommodations and food services. But the net result of that was a weekly average wage drop of $2,075, because the newer jobs pay considerably less.

While most of these economic trends predate the 2008 financial crisis and resulting recession, the economic downtown exacerbated the trends, the researchers said.

This year's report focused with particular urgency on the youth unemployment picture. If the prevailing economic studies hold, researchers Edie Joseph and Orlando Rodriguez said that people age 16 to 24 who can't find jobs now will be more likely to have lower wages in the future and more likely to create a "tremendous economic burden" on taxpayers by requiring government support.

"Young people are the economic future of Connecticut, and we ignore their current high level of unemployment at our own peril," the researchers said. "Connecticut cannot afford to wait when it comes to helping our young people gain employment."

After outlining three main policy recommendations, they added: "The time is now."

In a conference call Thursday morning, Joseph and Rodriguez said that older, more-experienced workers are to some extent crowding youths out of lower-paying jobs, which traditionally are widely filled by younger workers. But they batted away suggestions that higher minimum-wage laws would help the bigger picture much because the state is in dire need of middle-class jobs, they said.

To that end, they called for strengthening access to high-quality early education and K-through-12 schooling; for increasing access to affordable public higher education and job-training programs; and for investing in initiatives that reduce poverty, support families and communities, and improve the pay and benefits of existing jobs.

Their suggestions involve better funding of public schools; supporting college programs that prepare students for careers in growing fields with greater opportunities for higher wages; and expanding access to affordable housing in communities with high-performing schools and low poverty.

"We must continue to strengthen our investment in Connecticut's children," they said. "A strong commitment to youth can ensure that Connecticut will continue to prosper for generations to come."

Given the backdrop they provided of youth unemployment, however, that won't be easy.

In 2000, the unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds was 5.6 percent. By 2007, it had climbed to 10 percent. In 2011, it peaked at 18.2 percent. Though it dropped to 17.1 percent in 2012, the researchers weren't optimistic.

That's primarily a reflection of young adults giving up on the job hunt altogether, they said. The labor force participation rate among that sector dropped from 62 percent in 2007 to 55.7 percent in 2011 -- and then further down to 54.5 percent in 2012.

Meanwhile, the overall labor force participation rate for Connecticut dropped between 2007 and 2012 from 68.8 percent to 66.2 percent.

The sole age bracket of workers that increased its labor force participation rate?

"Those ages 55 and up," the report read, showing an uptick from 43 percent to 44.7 percent, "which may suggest that older workers are delaying retirement possily because of a loss of income or a decline in assets.